Before the rooster’s crow and the rising sun, a boy and his goat circle the Agricultural Science barn.
Senior William Westmoreland and his goat, Bucky, spend hours everyday working to perfect the intricacies of showing.
With a surplus of goat-raising supplies after his freshman year’s showing, William decided to continue. “It just kind of made sense to do it again,” William said, and has done so for the past four years.
“Without a doubt, William’s old Ag teacher Lindsey Savage was by far what started him off,” William’s father, Brandon said. “She was the teacher that sparked interest in this area– one that he never would’ve thought to try. His devotion to that spark and making her proud remains.”
When it comes to goats, bonding takes priority. Bucky, William said, came to him “the most spooked” of any of his goats.
“When I first get the goat, they’re always super scared,” William said. “They don’t want to be around you, around anyone. I have this tiny chair that I put in the pen, and I just sit there. And I let him come to me and I’ll do that for a whole week. After that I’ll start to work with him. It might take longer to get them used to you, but it always works for me.”
William spends, on average, two hours outside of school, feeding, teaching and caring for his creatures.
“There’re definitely many days that I spend longer than two hours,” William said. “That’s where my parents come in. My dad gets off of work at 4 o’clock, so he’s always here helping out. My mom also comes by, but she’s got work. But that’s been a huge weight off of my shoulders. I couldn’t have done any of this without them. I definitely needed them.”
With Ag such an involved activity, the most successful kids have at least one parent or guardian to support them. William has two.
“We do these animal projects as a family,” William’s mother, Heather said. “We take William to and from the barn and help with setting up the pens. We also divide and conquer on the cleaning and maintenance. This is, and should 100% be, a family project. For students that don’t have the luxury [of an involved guardian], we parents come together to offer help. This year is the first year the goat side has truly felt like a family.”
The cost of goats, feed troughs, collars, buckets, fans, shovels, ply wood and all things goat ranges dramatically. The price of the animal itself comes down to genetics and skeletal structure.
“The more you spend the better chance your hard work will produce an award-winning goat,” William said. “This is where you’ve got to learn from trial and error within your constraints of your budget. I’ve seen people spend $500 on there goat, which is usually the least that is spent, and they can do well at smaller shows. I increase how much I invest in a goat year after year, but we still kept out budget in the lower end.”
William’s family supports the costs, with any money made from shows or auctions funneled directly into college savings.
“William is fortunate to have us fund his animal projects,” Heather said. “He’s had to put the blood, sweat and tears in, but we will cover the cost. We equate it to the costs he would have if he had been in any other competitive sport.”
After showing season, William sent his first three goats to a petting zoo to “live happy lives.”
“It’s easier for me [to let my goats go] because I’ve already done it,” William said. “It wasn’t easy for my first to go. My second goat, I was kind of sick of him. But I still did love him. My last goat was hard– I thought he would be my best goat, and he definitely was throughout the last year. He was amazing. He was really good. It was hard to let him go. It’s definitely different for some people.”
Despite hoping to major in photography, qualities he learned as an Ag officer, William said, would follow him through any career.
“At shows I have to go out there and talk to people that I don’t know and really work on my people skills,” William said. “I had to talk to new people, especially at the auctions. That was definitely a huge push forward, because that’s been a problem with me throughout high school. But I’ve definitely improved on talking to people.”
William’s affinity for and participation in the Ag program not only set a tone for his future, but his family’s as well.
“How many parents can say they get to hang out with their teen every day and work towards a common goal,” Heather said. “We have our struggles but we work through it together. William has had the chance to show and prove to us that he is not only responsible, but is now the one we go to when we have Ag questions. Now we are already planning for ways to continue what we have learned. We hope to have our own livestock once William graduates in May.”
Patience, William said, is the number one characteristic Ag students must learn when showing goats.
“You have to have patience,” William said. “The goat can sense your anger, your frustration, and then they will choose no to listen. But it’s because, you’re not patient, you’re not being kind. You have to take it slow. I try and convey to some of the new people that it’s gonna take a lot of time to get your goat to walk or to place. It’s not just gonna, all of a sudden, work– boom. Goats all have their personalities. They’re going to throw a lot of stuff at you. So patience is the number one thing.”
